Electronic mail (email) as well as other types of collaborative software systems are well known and have become a standard in the field of communications and the sharing and transferring of data amongst users. The vast majority of companies and individuals today implement some form of such collaborative systems in order to facilitate interactions across the internet or various intranets. For example, the standard email system may allow an electronic message to be generated and transferred via a computer network such as the Internet. Furthermore, such software typically includes additional features of calendar, task and contact management, note taking and other helpful tools for collaboration and work in an organization.
With conventional electronic (email) mail programs, an individual's email data is normally stored on a computer that has the software installed thereon. For example, a user's home personal computer (PC) will typically maintain all of the email data for that particular user. This can present problems when a person wishes to access and use email services from computers other than the home PC, which do not have the same data. Additionally, even if they are able to do so, further inconveniences can arise when the user returns to his or her home PC and the data stored thereon is stale and not up to date with what was modified while being away.
A variety of different approaches have been developed to address such problems. A common scenario often involves carrying laptops or personal digital assistants (PDAs) in order to access email services and data on the go. However, these types of solutions present a multitude of other requirements and possible inconveniences such as cost, size and interface considerations, remote access to the internet, which is not always available, and various other issues.
One possible technique is described in a related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/435,070 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This method utilizes a portable storage device, such as a USB flash drive, that can be connected to a home PC in order to download and store personal data for the user, such that he or she may take it to a guest computer and use it thereon. However, proprietary email technologies often vary from one personal computer to the next and this can preclude an individual from accessing or manipulating his personal data if the guest computer is not equipped with the same type of electronic mail client system as the home PC. As an illustration, if a user is using Microsoft Outlook at home and the guest computer is instead equipped with Lotus Notes or Windows Mail, the user would be unable to access or manipulate his email data from the portable device by using the guest computer. In light of these and other shortcomings in the art, what is desirable, is a system and method for synchronizing electronic mail data across multiple computers with different email clients, regardless of the proprietary technology that they implement.